Archives for April 2012

The past few days have been fascinating for SEO’s.  Google’s latest algorithm update, now officially named Penguin, has been rolled out.  The update was originally called the Over Optimization Penalty, then the Webspam Algorithm Update, and now Penguin.  As you can imagine, there have been screams from webmasters far and wide about the update (from both webmasters who should have gotten hit by Penguin, and some who believe they were wrongly penalized.)  False positives are absolutely going to occur with Penguin, and Google knows this.  More about this later in the post.

I’ve already started helping some companies that have been hit by Penguin analyze their websites and prepare for a Post-Penguin world.  I’ve also been monitoring the various webmaster forums to see examples of websites getting hit, to see what they were doing wrong.  Based on my research and analysis so far, I wanted to write a post explaining what I’m seeing and document the common thread across sites that are being penalized.  Note, we are still very early in the game, and Google will undoubtedly be rolling out updates to Penguin over time.  Therefore, this is what I’m seeing now.  Since it’s a fluid situation, I will try and write follow-up posts about future Penguin releases.

Penguin and Exact Match Domains:
Before I get deeper into this post, I wanted to mention my first post about Penguin, which I published a few days ago.  I wrote about the potential impact of the Over Optimization Penalty on Exact Match Domains.  If you have been hit by Penguin, and you are using exact match domains, definitely check out that post.  There are several risks you might want to review.

Inbound Links – The Common Thread During Research and Analysis
Almost every penalized site that I’ve reviewed had issues with inbound links.  Specifically, their link profiles were littered were unnatural, spammy links.  And not all of those links were paid text links like some people would expect.  I saw a range of issues that could get a site pecked by Penguin.  Sorry, that’s my first Penguin joke.  :)  Below, I’m going to cover several inbound link issues that I’ve seen during my analysis.  That said, I first wanted to mention other spammy tactics and Penguin 1.0.

What About Over Optimization?
I’ve been searching for a site that got hit for spammy title tags, keyword stuffing, doorway pages, etc., but I’m not seeing that as a driving force right now with Penguin.  And believe me, I’ve come across a lot of sites violating Google’s Quality Guidelines over the years…  It doesn’t seem like those factors are getting caught right now, with the key phrase being “right now”.  My hope is that Google will roll out updates to Penguin that also catch those violations.  So, if you are a company that’s keyword stuffing, employing doorway pages, overly optimizing your title tags, etc., now is the time to change…  It wouldn’t shock me to see rolling updates to Penguin that include penalties targeting those violations as well.

Below, I’ll list some of the inbound link issues I’ve seen on websites hit by Penguin.  Again, we are early on, and things can change.  But for now, this is what I’m seeing:

1. Paid Text Links Using Exact Anchor Text
As you can imagine, this one is a clear violation of Google’s guidelines.  During my analysis, it was easy to pick up exact match, paid text links on sites that were rampant with sponsored links.  Many of the sites I analyzed had these types of links.  Similar to what I said in my first post on Penguin, if you want to check your own inbound links, read my post about finding paid text links using Open Site Explorer.

Checking inbound links via Open Site Explorer:

2. Comment Spam
When analyzing websites hit by Penguin, I also saw a lot of comment spam.  This came in two forms.  The first form was using signatures in comments using exact match anchor text.  For example, instead of using your name (like you’re supposed to), people commenting were using the exact match anchor text for keywords they wanted to rank for.  For Google, this is pretty darn easy to pick up.

3. Guest Posts on Questionable Sites
I’ve also seen many guest posts on questionable sites that included exact match anchor text.  Note, I obviously don’t think all guest posts are bad.  Actually, I think they can be ultra-powerful on the right websites and blogs.  But, the guest posts I’m referring to were on sites set up simply to generate income from those guest posts (based on the links they would drive).  And the posts themselves weren’t strong… They were typically thin with a focus on the anchor text, and not the story.

4. Article Marketing Sites
Similar to the last bullet, I saw a lot of syndicated articles using exact match anchor text leading back to sites that got hammered by Penguin.  So yes, Penguins seem “cold” to article marketing tactics. Sorry, that’s my second Penguin joke. :)  Again, these articles were relatively thin, used several instances of exact match anchor text leading back to the site, etc.

Inbound Link Profiles Heavily Weighted by These Tactics Got Hit
One of the most important findings included the weighting of inbound links for each site.  For the sites I analyzed, a majority of the inbound links included the tactics listed above.  Actually, for some sites, I couldn’t find any natural links… most were unnatural.  As you can imagine, this is not a strong signal to Google that you’re a typical webmaster looking to gain traffic by earning it.  You look like you’re gaming the system to gain rankings.  And that’s when Penguin steps in, and hammers you.  A natural link profile will contain many types of links, including URL’s, brand names, image links, etc.  It won’t contain 99% exact match anchor text from article sites, comment spam, etc.

Dangerous Sites and Not Just Spammy
There’s another point I wanted to make before ending this post.  While analyzing inbound links across penalized sites, I found several linking websites that were flat out dangerous, and not just spammy.  I found sites flagged for malware, sites using numerous popups as I hit a page, etc.  So, when we know that Google doesn’t like sending users to dangerous websites, and they it doesn’t like spam, these dangerous sites could have been the kiss of death for downstream destinations.  If you have unnatural links on dangerous sites, then the Penguin outcome probably wasn’t pretty for you.

An example of a website flagged for malware:

Next Steps for Penguin
Remember, this is just the beginning stages of Penguin and the situation can change quickly.  I’m going to keep analyzing websites that have been penalized, monitoring webmaster forums, and watching Google’s response closely.

Here are some closing points about Penguin that are important to understand:

• Google said you cannot file a reinclusion request if you’ve been hit by Penguin.  Since the update is algorithmic, and not manual, reinclusion requests will not help you.
• Google set up a Penguin form to fill out if you believe that you’ve been wrongly hit by the algo update.  If you think you’re a false positive, then fill out the form today.
• Google also included a link to a form where you can report spam that you think should have been caught by Penguin, but hasn’t.  You can click the button labeled “Report Webspam” on that page.  This is obviously a little subjective, but I’m glad Google is looking to catch more webspam in future releases of Penguin.
• It’s worth noting that both Panda and Penguin have been rolled out within a few days of one another.  Yesterday, Matt Cutts explained that the latest version of the Panda Update rolled out on 4/19, and then Penguin rolled out on 4/24.  You should check your reporting to make sure you know the date you were hit.  You don’t want to go down the wrong path when making changes to your website…  i.e. Mistaking Panda penalties with Penguin penalties. <- and by the way, how ridiculous does that sound? :)
• If you’ve been hit by Penguin, take a hard look at your site, your inbound link profile, etc., and plan to make changes.  I know this is going to be a painful time for you and your website, but don’t just sit there. Analyze and take action.

Until the Next Version of Penguin rolls out…
That’s what I have for now.  I hope this post helped shed some light on the latest Google algorithm update.  If you have any questions, or need assistance, don’t hesitate to contact me.  Good luck.

GG

Yesterday, we found out that the latest Google algorithm update was underway (dubbed the Over Optimization Penalty).  Google posted about the update on the Webmaster Central Blog.  By the way, Google is officially calling the update the Webspam Algorithm Update and not the Over Optimization Update (although I like the sound of the latter).  There has been a lot of speculation about what the update would look like, which spammy tactics would get hit, etc.  I’ve been keeping a close eye on the various webmaster forums, and there are already many reports of sites getting nuked.  As Google explained in its blog post yesterday, it was targeting webspam tactics that were being used to game the system.  That could mean spammy inbound links, keyword stuffing, doorway pages, etc.

The goal of the latest algorithm update is to level the playing field rankings-wise.  Google realizes that there are many sites that have great content, but simply can’t compete against other sites that have been overly optimized.  And when I say “overly optimized”, I’m referring to using spammy tactics to game the system.  As I’ve always said, those tactics might work in the short-term, but the long term impact could be devastating.  And those sites are seeing the negative effect now.

What Does Over Optimization Mean?
There’s a lot of speculation with what over optimization actually is, and what can get you penalized with this latest algo update.  For example, keyword stuffing, too many inbound links with rich anchor text, overly optimized title tags, footers filled with optimized content, etc.  Basically, any spammy tactic that companies have used to game the system…

To be clear, these aren’t tactics that a typical webmaster would use.  Based on the screams from webmasters that have been hit during recent testing, and now as the algo gets rolled out, spammy inbound links seem to be causing a lot of problems.  That said, I’m sure we are going to see many examples of different tactics getting penalized too.  By the way, if you are interested in checking your own inbound links, then check out my recent post about finding spammy links using Open Site Explorer.  It will only take you a few minutes…

The Exact Match Domain Threshold
One tactic that I think hasn’t received as much attention during this update is the use of exact match domains.  Mike Wilton mentioned this in his post about Over Optimization, but most people have been focusing on inbound links, keyword stuffing, on-page optimization, etc.  But anyone in SEO will tell you that exact match domains have been a tactic that has been abused over the years.  It involves someone registering a domain name that exactly matches the keyword they want to rank for.  Unfortunately, the engines heavily weight keyword-rich domains in the SERPs.  As you can imagine, that flaw has led to an abuse of the system.

For example, imagine you sold widgets in Princeton, NJ.  You might register www.princetonwidgets.com or www.widgetsprinceton.com.  You get the picture, and my guess is that you have seen many exact match domains rank well as you search Google.  On the one hand, if you legitimately have an exact match domain, and you use that domain as your core website, then I get it (and that’s fine to me).  Also, if you happen to have a brand name or company name that matches a highly searched keyword, I get that too.

But the abuse has come from business owners (and heavily local business owners) who simply want to dominate a certain category by using exact match domains.  And that’s where I think it crosses the line.  In addition, some companies use their core domain for their website, but register a bunch of exact match domains that simply link to their core domain.  As you can see, that’s not a “normal” way to set up websites for a company (or how to build inbound links for the core domain).

Will Exact Match Domains Get Hammered by the Webspam Algorithm Update?
It’s hard to say to what degree, but I know some will get penalized (actually, I see some are getting penalized right now).  I obviously don’t think all exact match domains will get nuked, since that’s way too extreme, and would include the legitimate use of exact match domains (as I covered earlier).  So, there might be a threshold that Google uses while determining which exact match domains to penalize.

An Example of Webmasters Reporting a Drop in Rankings as Algorithm Update Rolls Out: 

Below, I’ll list some thoughts about what that threshold could look like.  And I hope this goes without saying, but we’ll all find out over time how extreme this algorithm update was.  We are only on day 1. :)

1. Number of Domains Per Company
As I mentioned earlier, there are some companies that have registered an exact match domain for their business website.  If that’s the sole use of the domain, and you are adding high quality, valuable content, then there’s no reason for that domain to get hammered.  But, if a company registered 5 different exact match domains, in addition to having its company website, then you can start to see how this would violate Google’s guidelines.  The company is simply trying to game Google and rank across multiple sites for target keywords.  This type of set up is at great risk right now (in my opinion).

And by the way, if you think Google doesn’t know that you own all the domains, think again.  It has multiple ways to understand this, including your own Google Analytics account.  :)

2. Cross Linking of Domains Using Rich Anchor Text
Are all the exact match domains linking to either each other, or to another domain you own?  Again, that could easily be perceived as spamming by Google.  Buying a bunch of exact match domains only to cross link them using rich anchor text could definitely get you in trouble.  I’ve come across this a thousand times while analyzing inbound links for companies.  You clearly see several company-owned domains all linking to one another with the exact anchor text that they want to rank for.

3. Doorway Pages
Similar to what I explained above, some companies employ exact match domains (and pages within those domains) solely to help another site rank.  In addition, some companies use EMD’s to funnel traffic to a core, company website.  Again, typical webmasters aren’t going to do this… They will build high quality domains with the goal of impressing prospective customers, educating them, and landing new business.  They will build links naturally and not try to buy their way to the top of the rankings.  Google has a clear view of doorway pages, as stated in its Webmaster Guidelines.

4. Thin Content and Panda
With the latest algorithm update, there is a chance that a website could fall victim to a double whammy penalty.  For example, getting hit by both Panda and Over Optimization.  All you have to do is combine what I’ve listed above and you can see how a website might have both thin content and be in use solely to help another site rank well.  If that’s the case, then it could get hit by the Panda Update (which targets low quality content), and by OOP (which targets webspam).  Good luck recovering from that perfect storm…

Summary – We’re only in the beginning stages of OOP
As crazy as this sounds, this is an extremely exciting time for anyone involved in SEO.  You get to watch a major algorithm update get pushed out, analyze the sites that get penalized, view collateral damage, try and better understand what Google’s objective was with the update, etc.  In this post, I’ve tried to outline how the latest update could impact exact match domains.  Unfortunately, nobody will know the exact impact for weeks (or longer).  I plan to write more about the Webspam Algorithm Update in future posts, so keep an eye on my RSS feed.

And, if you have been hit by the latest update, feel free to reach out to me.  Although many spammy websites will get penalized, there is always collateral damage.

GG